To tip or not to tip
Everyone's got an opinion about tipping. The Washington Post talked to servers last week who want to add mandatory service charges to restaurant checks. The Wall Street Journal chronicled the history of tipping, from its waning period in the early 20th century to now, when even take-out receipts include a line for gratuity.
The WSJ piece ends with a thought that has crossed my mind before: why aren't waitstaff paid a minimum wage? I don't understand the difference between adding an additional service charge to the check and raising the price of a meal to include the cost of service.
It sounds as if my bill is going to go up about 20 percent regardless --- either I pay a broken-out fee specifically for the service, or restaurants pay their servers to serve, and they pass that cost on to me by raising the price of the food.
Generous diners would still be free to put more money down To Insure Prompt Service, which is what I thought tips were all about --- to reward people for doing their job well, not to pay them simply for doing their job.
Comments
The difference between mandatory tipping and paying the servers more is that servers get paid whether or not the restaurant has a lot of business but tips only come with customers. This is why it might make a bigger difference to the restaurants bottom line to actually pay servers more. So instead of a 20% increase it might be 30% to cover the down times when they still have to pay servers but don't have a lot of customers.
Posted by: ke | March 5, 2008 1:39 PM
On a budgetary issue, I wonder how often people would eat out if the cost of a meal went up 20 percent automatically? Will it price some people out of eating out? Will that guarantee good service with mandatory tipping? Also, if you're someone who provides exceptional service, would a mandatory tipping policy make people feel less inclined to tip you more even though you went above and beyond the call of duty? How would you feel about making the same as the bozoserver who is slacking off in the kitchen?
Posted by: dan thanh | March 5, 2008 3:14 PM